Historical gas balloon flights

Olympic Games held In Paris, France in 1900. The two French balloonist Henry de la Vaulx and Georges Castillon de Saint-Victor set world records for distance 1925 km from Paris to Kiev and duration nearly 36 hours.

The Gordon Bennett Balloon Cup held in Geneva in 1922. Old video from the start.

World Meteorological Day 23th March

World Meteorological Day was established in 1951 to commemorate the World Meteorological Organization creation on 23th March 1950. This organization announces a slogan for World Meteorological Day every year, and this day is celebrated in all member countries.

U.S. Weather Bureau officially began their free-rising balloon program in 1906.
Weather balloon ca. between 1909 and 1920

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), an organization of the United Nations, was created on 23th March 1950 to replace the International Meteorological Organization. It began operations in 1951 to coordinate member nation in the fields of meteorology, operational hydrology, and Earth sciences for the security of their population. The first World Meteorological Day was held on 23th March 1961.

Electronic Notice Board of CE Cup 2022

Results

Task sheet of Flight3
Flight3 is cancelled by safety reason, 8.2.2
Task sheet of Flight2
Task sheet of Flight1

Pilot list

1 Peter Molnar HUN
2 Balázs Nagy HUN
3 János Konecsni HUN
4 Rita Becz HUN
5 Péter Nagy HUN
6 Maksym Demchuk UKR
7 Thomas Spildooren BEL
9 Csaba Molnár    HUN
10 Sándor Simon   HUN
11 Balázs Csonka HUN
12 Péter Beleznay     HUN
13 Szabolcs Garab HUN
14 Balázs Németh HUN
15 László Keresztes HUN
16 Viktor Palócz HUN
17 Pál Pácza HUN
21 József Stieber HUN
22 Róbert Kádár HUN
23 Tibor Németh HUN
24 Peter Panis BEL
25 Lajos Böddi HUN

General Briefing Information
Rules
Map (jpg, 77 MB) Map calibration for Oziexplorer
PZs waypoints and PLTs

First manned hydrogen balloon flight

At 1:45 pm on 1 December 1783, professor Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers (Les Frères Robert) launched a new, manned hydrogen balloon from the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, amid vast crowds and excitement.

The balloon was held on ropes and led to its final launch place by four of the leading noblemen in France, the Marechal de Richelieu, Marshal de Biron, the Bailli de Suffren, and the Duke of Chaulnes. Jacques Charles was accompanied by Nicolas-Louis Robert as co-pilot of the 380-cubic-metre, hydrogen-filled balloon. The envelope was fitted with a hydrogen release valve, and was covered with a net from which the basket was suspended. Sand ballast was used to control altitude. They ascended to a height of about 1,800 feet (550 m) and landed at sunset in Nesles-la-Vallée after a flight of 125 minutes, covering 36 km. The chasers on horseback, who were led by the Duc de Chartres, held down the craft while both Charles and Robert alighted.

Charles then decided to ascend again, but alone this time because the balloon had lost some of its hydrogen. This time he ascended rapidly to an altitude of about 3,000 metres, where he saw the sun again. He began suffering from aching pain in his ears so he ‘valved’ to release gas, and descended to land gently about 3 km away at Tour du Lay. Unlike the Robert brothers, Charles never flew again, although a balloon using hydrogen for its lift came to be called a Charlière in his honour.

Charles and Robert carried a barometer and a thermometer to measure the pressure and the temperature of the air, making this not only the first manned hydrogen balloon flight, but also the first balloon flight to provide meteorological measurements of the atmosphere above the Earth’s surface.

It is reported that 400,000 spectators witnessed the launch, and that hundreds had paid one crown each to help finance the construction and receive access to a “special enclosure” for a “close-up view” of the take-off. Among the “special enclosure” crowd was Benjamin Franklin, the diplomatic representative of the United States of America. Also present was Joseph Montgolfier, whom Charles honoured by asking him to release the small, bright green, pilot balloon to assess the wind and weather conditions.

Official Notice Board of Europeans 2021

Electronic Notice Board of 22nd FAI European Hot Air Balloon Championship
Szeged, 12th – 18th September 2021

The ENB posted at 12th September. Here will be the list of pilots, announcments, task sheets, complaints, jury decesions and results.

.

Results

Task sheet Fight7 – cancelled

Complaint of competitor number 62

Flight 16th September pm cancelled. Next briefing 05:15.
Flight 16th September am cancelled. Next briefing 16:00.

Complaint of competitor number 9

Task sheet Fight6
Task sheet Fight5
Task sheet Fight4
Task sheet Fight3
Task sheet Fight2
Task sheet Fight1

NrNameCountry
1Stefan Jakob ZeberliSUI
2Laurynas KomžaLIT
3Nicolas SchwartzFRA
4Beata Barbara ChomaPOL
5Nairi BarsegyanARM
6Gerald StuerzlingerAUT
7Helmut PöttlerAUT
8Thomas Kindermann-SchönAUT
9Michael AbelAUT
10Martin PaggerAUT
11Christoph FraislAUT
12Steven VlegelsBEL
13David SpildoorenBEL
14Evert DehandschutterBEL
15Thomas SpildoorenBEL
16Igor MiklousicCRO
18Bojan KuglerCRO
19David LínekCZE
20Petr KUBICEKCZE
21Pavel KostrhunCZE
22Pavel MěřínskýCZE
23Jan SuchýCZE
24Kim LarsenDEN
25Rune Tore PaamandDEN
26Claus ThomsenDEN
27Ivan AyalaESP
28Blai Carbonell RodriguezESP
29Ricardo AracilESP
30Oscar Portillo FeliuESP
31Clement SeigeotFRA
32JeanPhilippe OdouardFRA
33Laure de ColignyFRA
34Benjamin Cleyet-MarrelFRA
35Alexis Béjat FRA
36Dominic BarefordGBR
37Pat PruchnickyjGBR
38Kenneth KarlstromGBR
39Pascal KreinsGER
40Uwe SchneiderGER
41Martin WegnerGER
42Sven GoehlerGER
43David StrasmannGER
44Bastian SchwarzGER
45Peter MolnarHUN
46Szabolcs GarabHUN
47Konecsni JánosHUN
48Igor CharbonnierITA
49Guido MontemurroITA
50Raffaele MoscaraITA
51Kaspars StamursLAT
52Kristine VevereLAT
53Ieva ŠķēleLAT
54Vytas KerdokasLIT
55Rokas KostiuskeviciusLIT
56Tadas GegeviciusLIT
57Rimas KostiuskeviciusLIT
58Vytautas JunevičiusLIT
59Christophe BetzenLUX
60Roy GommerNDL
61Henk BroedersNDL
62Jan OudenampsenNDL
63Mateusz RękasPOL
64Tomasz FilusPOL
65Roman BautaPOL
66Bartosz NowakowskiPOL
67Witold FilusPOL
68Dmitriy ZhokhovRUS
69Evgeny Chubarov RUS
70Andrey KulkovRUS
71Vito RomeSLO
72DEJAN BUZETISLO
73Jernej BojanovičSLO
74Roman HugiSUI
75René ErniSUI
76Marc BlaserSUI
77Gian-Marco NachtSUI
78Cédric GauchSUI
80Pavol GombošSLK
81Marián HraňoSLK
83Roman SavchukUKR
84Maksym DemchukUKR
Fiesta pilots
101Csaba Molnár HUN
102Rita BeczHUN
103Palócz ViktorHUN
104Péter Nagy HUN
105Balázs NémethHUN
106Zoltán NémethHUN
107László Keresztes HUN
108Andrej SenekovičSLO
109Brigitta MenyhártHUN
110Radoš ŠvageljSLO
111Ferenc FüstösHUN
112Lajos Böddi HUN
113Róbert Kádár HUN
114Gyula JudákHUN
115István dr.Barla-SzabóHUN
116Sándor Simon HUN
117Áron Nyíri HUN
118Mihály TóthHUN
119Lorchner Rémi FRA

General Briefing information

Europeans 2021


The invitation of 22nd FAI European Hot Air Balloon Championship’s process started. We sent out the leters to the NACs at 15th January 2021. Deadline for them to send nominations is 25th February.

You will find the actual informations and all news on the Event’s website: europeans2021.eu

The schedule of the invitation:

  • Start to send out the invitation to NACs at 15th January.
  • Deadline for NACs to send nominations is 25th February.
  • Individual invitation to Competitors will be sent on 1st March.
  • 1st round deadline for Competitors’ application and entry fee is 28th April.
  • 2nd round start 3rd of May.
  • 2nd round deadline for Competitors’ application and entry fee 31st of May.

Electronic Notice Board of CE Cup 2020

Results

Task sheet of flight8

Task sheet of flight7
Scoring area of task 21

Task sheet of flight6

Task sheet of flight5
Scoring area of task 15

Task sheet of flight4

Task sheet of flight3

Task sheet of flight2

Task sheet of flight1

Pilot nameCountry
1Molnár csabaHungary
2Peter MolnarHungary
3Garab SzabolcsHungary
4Dejan BuzetiSlovenija
5Raffaele MoscaraItalia
6Konecsni JánosHungary
7Becz RitaHungary
8Tóth MihályHungary
9Horváth AntalHungary
10Nemeth ZoltanHungary
11Nyíri ÁronHungary
12Maksym DemchukUkraine
13Nagy PéterHungary
14Simon SándorUkraine
15Kim LarsenDenmark
16Szabó PéterHungary
17Keresztes LászlóHungary
18Morvai TiborHungaryFiesta
19Böddi LajosHungaryFiesta
20Kádár RóbertHungaryFiesta
21Csonka BalázsHungaryFiesta

First record of Auguste Piccard

Bundesarchiv Bild 102-13738, Auguste Piccard.jpg
Auguste Piccard in 1932

On 27 May 1931, Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer took off from Augsburg, Germany, and reached a record altitude of 15,781 m (51,775 ft). (FAI Record File Number 10634) During this flight, Piccard was able to gather substantial data on the upper atmosphere, as well as measure cosmic rays. On 18 August 1932, launched from Dübendorf, Switzerland, Piccard and Max Cosyns made a second record-breaking ascent to 16,201 m (53,153 ft). (FAI Record File Number 6590) He ultimately made a total of twenty-seven balloon flights, setting a final record of 23,000 m (75,459 ft).

Inside of a hot-air balloon tank

Here is the inside of an aluminium hot-air balloon tank. This ‘cut away’ clearly shows how a hot-air balloon cylinder works…

Inside of an aluminium hot-air balloon tank

From the top.
You can see on this tank – the liquid valve which draws liquid fuel from the tube at base of the tank (silver handwheel valve) and the vapour valve (red wheel regulator valve) which could run the vapour pilot light on your burner if it had one, the pressure-relief-valve (PRV) is shown with the black plastic dust cap on it, the bleed valve used when filling the tank is the small screw valve and in the centre, the dial for the float gauge indicates the amount of liquid fuel in the tank.

Inside.
You can see the kinked ‘dip tube’, the contents float gauge, the bleed valve tube at a high fixed level to indicate when to stop filling as your tank is full enough and the pressure relief valve.

Important notes – Not all tanks have a kinked dip tube and cylinders can have different valve configurations.

Source: cameronballoons.co.uk

Winners of Europeans 2019

2nd Laurynas Komža LTU, 1st Stefan Zeberli SUI, 3rd Nicolas Schwartz FRA

21st European Hot Air Balloon Championship in Mallorca ended after 5 flights and 16 tasks.

Congratulations to all the pilots and teams, europeans and worlds are dope thanks to you all. Thanks to the whole national team for the help and healthy rivalry. It makes us stronger and more focused.

Thanks to David Bareford and his team for a challenging and interesting championship. It wasn’t an easy job to do with such a weather forecast on an mediterranean island, but we had it all: slow winds, fast take off, fog, clouds, missed targets, mud, all sorts of flags and great effort from all the pilots.

Thanks to Ricardo Aracil and his fantastic team for this event that we won’t forget. And we definitely won’t forget the award ceremonies, both of MBT and Europeans.

The 22nd European Hot Air Balloon Championship will be in  Szeged, Hungary. See you there!

Photo and text credit Balloon Club Lituanica